


this is a wild game of survival

by aletterinthenameofsanity



Series: the odds were never in our favor [2]
Category: Hunger Games Series - All Media Types, The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Hunger Games Setting, Dark, Quarter Quell, Rebellion, War, but also plotting a rebellion, ergo they get reaped in the quarter quell, making peace with death, making reginald the snow-analogue was the best decision, pre-quell, the hargreeves siblings as past victors
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-12
Updated: 2019-03-12
Packaged: 2019-11-15 20:03:59
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,544
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18080027
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aletterinthenameofsanity/pseuds/aletterinthenameofsanity
Summary: At the interviews, they all ply their own ways into rebelling against the Games.Ben goes up there and smiles, just like the rest of them, and talks about how much he has come to enjoy his time in the Capitol, how they have become like a family to him. (The same Capitol that broke Klaus, that drained Allison, that killed Luther's cats, that turned Vanya and Five's genius into murder, that sends Diego home crying every years, that forced Ben to kill his best friend.)They sit there in those interview seats and make the Capitol sweat, make the citizens, simpering and false and too obsessed with their precious Victors, beg for the Quell to stop. The Capitolites don't want to lose their precious little Five, their whores in Allison and Klaus, their perfect heroes in Luther and Diego, their villain in Ben (who killed the favorite his Games), even the forgotten like Vanya. They don't want to lose their characters, their celebrities, their playthings.(The days leading up to the beginning of the Third Quarter Quell.)





	this is a wild game of survival

**Author's Note:**

> Title is from "Game of Survival" by Ruelle.
> 
> In case it isn't clear, Peeta wasn't Reaped for the 74th Games in this 'verse. Some random kid from the Seam was Reaped with Katniss and she ended up being the sole Victor of the Games, though still became the Girl On Fire. Thus, she and Haymitch get Reaped for the Quell. Make sense? Good.  
>  
> 
> Quick review from last story, and for anyone who needs to know a bit of background:  
> District 1: Allison, won the 67th Games by forming alliances and backstabbing everyone (one time literally)  
> District 2: Luther, won the 65th Games by brute strength and utilizing the metal spikes that rained from the sky at night  
> District 3: Five, won the 71st Games by using the mines around the Cornucopia to take out the enitre Career pack ont he second day (youngest Victor in memory, won at age 12)  
> District 5: Vanya, won the 73rd Games by manipulating the power source on the tundra-like Arena to divert all warmth to her  
> District 8: Ben, oldest Victor among 7, won the 58th Games by feeding his female partner poison berries and strangling a girl to death while feverish and delirious (later was Klaus' mentor)  
> District 8: Klaus, won the 69th Games by hiding and sneaking around in the cave-Arena at night, waited for mutts to take out all competitors (made living in Capitol by selling his body after the Games)  
> District 10: Diego, won the 63rd Games by the use of his knife and knowledge of weak spots on a body

_Stars are not small or gentle._

_They are writhing and dying and burning._

_They are not here to be pretty._

_I am trying to learn from them._

**― Caitlyn Siehl**

 

The costumes for opening ceremony of the Quell don't reflect the Districts as much as they usually do. There are touches of each District here and there, yes, but the costumes this time tend to reflect each Victor's time in the arena- their personal strengths, the things that make them dangerous, the things that gave them victory in their games.

With the exception of Vanya, Five, and Katniss from District 12, no one here is a child anymore. And even of those three- no one could ever pretend that any of them are innocent in any way. They are all adults, hardened killers who have displayed their true brutality on screen for all of Panem.

Their outfits for the opening ceremony, in turn, reflect that. There are no trees or cows or moons or farmers among these tributes- no, each outfit reflects their performance in their Games, their status as weapons and Victors.

Even Klaus, perhaps the least lethal of any of Ben's seven, looks dangerous in the chariot next to Ben. Swathed in black silk robes that remind any who looks at them of the darkest, scariest regions of a cave, he shows how he survived and scraped his way out of the Games. His eyes, lined by kohl and dark eyeshadow, look like they could pierce through any darkness, and for the first time since Dave died Ben thinks Klaus is sober.

They cover Ben's fists in faux claws, reminding the public of how he killed that final girl, drape him in red and black to resemble the nightlock berries that killed his District partner. (Under the swathes of fabric covering both of them, Ben holds Klaus' hand. Klaus may be more sober than usual, but he can always use the stability.)

Vanya is arrayed in a silver and white suit, her clothes reflective to the light. She looks like a blizzard and a nuclear storm in one, a reflection of the tundra weather that destroyed her fellow tributes two years ago.

Allison's outfit is all seduction and manipulation, a slinky gold evening gown that completely bares her back. Her hair, bleached blonde years ago in the Capitol, is twisted with gold ribbons. No one could ever forget the way she manipulated her way through the games, stabbing her ally in the exact same place her dress now leaves vulnerable.

Luther is outfitted in an outfit that consists of a greaved skirt, spike-heeled metal boots, leather bracelets lined with metal spikes, and a collar around his neck that consists of giant metal spikes that stand up around his neck, all of which resemble the metal spikes that rained down on his Games, that he used to kill four tributes (and that killed his ally). His chest is left bare, showing off his muscles to the screaming Capitol crowds.

Little Five is covered in a suit that seems almost to be made out of motherboard parts, the glowing, changing lights lending a shadowy, almost sadistic glow to his features. They call back the way he manipulated technology to kill so many tributes in his games.

Diego has silver strips running down the sides of his tightly-fitted black jumpsuit, the stripes fashioning themselves into points across his ribs that resemble daggers. Similiar strips run down his arms, their points running to his middle fingers on both hands. The base of the outfit resembles the tributes' outfits from his year rather well, and the pattern on his jumpsuit reminds the whole world of his signature weapons.

Even District 12's Katniss Everdeen, the newest Victor- she rides into the arena with fire on her back, reminding the Capitol of the girl who blazed at her interview, who escaped a wildfire, who killed her final opponent with a flaming arrow from up in a tree.

Every single one of them, as they pull into the final circle of the track, looks like the dangerous weapons they made themselves into in order to survive the Games. There is no way to forget that the tributes riding this year's chariots are killers, survivors, the Capitol's precious Victors.

Ben looks up at President Hargreeves as he gives his speech, and though the President spends most of his time looking at Katniss, District 8 gets plenty of eye time as well. Ben meets President Hargreeves' gaze, and he can feel Klaus' fingers clenching around his own. 

-

At the interviews, they all ply their own ways into rebelling against the Games. Allison and Klaus talk about how much the Capitol has done for them (and only Ben recognizes the hatred in Allison's eyes, the flatness behind the sugar in Klaus’ tone).

Five- dangerous, killer Five- walks up in his schoolboy's uniform, perfectly innocent, and lies through his teeth about his hope for the future. He dares the Capitol to look at the child who's facing his death once again, genius potential and innocent face wrapped up in one. It's a completely different look than the opening ceremony, but it works.

Luther asks in his slow, cool way if there isn't some way to perhaps stop the Games so that Allison might return home to her daughter and Katniss to her boyfriend (who the Capitol had played up the romance of during the last Victory Tour), and Ben can hear the dozens of children lying dead in his words.

Vanya is quiet during her interview, her smile small and her eyes wide. Despite the fact that she utterly destroyed the Games her years, indirectly taking out such a large number of tributes by changing the climate itself in the Arena, she still looks so innocent and gentle. Caesar clearly agrees with Ben as his questions with her are softer, his voice gentler.

Diego's interview is an angry one, full of protest and fire. He talks about how much he doesn't want to die, how much he thought that surviving one Games would lead to him to being able to live a happy life. (Or, at least, the happiest life possible.)

And Ben- he goes up there and smiles, just like the rest of them, and talks about how much he has come to enjoy his time in the Capitol, how they have become like a family to him. (The same Capitol that broke Klaus, that drained Allison, that killed Luther's cats, that turned Vanya and Five's genius into murder, that sends Diego home crying every years, that forced Ben to kill his best friend.)

They sit there in those interview seats and make the Capitol sweat, make the citizens, simpering and false and too obsessed with their precious Victors, beg for the Quell to stop. The Capitolites don't want to lose their precious little Five, their whores in Allison and Klaus, their perfect heroes in Luther and Diego, their villain in Ben (who killed the favorite his Games), even the forgotten like Vanya. They don't want to lose their characters, their celebrities, their playthings.

Then all the Victors clasp each other's hands- Ben holds Klaus' on one side and Johanna Mason's on the other- and raise them, forming two unbroken lines. There's nearly a riot in the stadium and Ben has to smother a smile. They've managed to start a small-scale rebellion even here, in the Capitol, and there's no way President Hargreeves will be able to stop what the Victors have begun here.

A number of the Victors will die in the Quarter Quell, but what they have started here- it's going to have lasting effects. It's gonna kickstart Five and District 13's plans, bring a vision of unified rebellion to everyone watching the interviews- which is, by law, the whole country.

Let President Hargreeves try to stop what they've started. Ben's probably gonna die, and he's fine with that, as long as in the end they have some chance of bringing about a new world for Claire and Dolores and every other child, it'll be worth it.

-

Training is almost worse than it was the first time. For years, Ben has been sending tributes into that training room, where they come out with scores rarely above a seven. Klaus got an eight, and he was the highest Ben has ever managed to pull out of a tribute. Ben himself only pulled a six, and that was because he showed off his skills with plant IDing.

Now, the standards are impossibly high. Ben and Klaus are perhaps some of the absolute least qualified Victors going into this- Ben's spent the seventeen years since his Games mostly just living in the Victor's Village, tending his garden and doing his knitting and praying that a tribute would come along that wouldn't die, and Klaus has spent the past six years getting high and fucking his way through the Capitol. His year with Dave wasn't much better, even if the drugs stopped then.

(Ben's hands are thirty-four-years-old, older than any of his kind-of-friends but not as old as Wiress or Chaff or Seeder or Haymitch or Mags. He's got somewhat of an advantage in youth, but it won't do him much against any of the actually trained tributes.)

Ben's only consolation is that very few of the other Victors have spent the years since their Games developing their fighting skills either. The Capitol had required each of the Victors to choose a 'talent' to show off after their Games, and that's really the only thing most Victors have spent their years since working on when they're not working as Mentors. Allison's was fashion design, Luther's was raising cats, Five's was engineering, Vanya's was playing the violin, Diego's was cooking, Ben's was knitting, and Klaus', technically, was dance, which he really does have a skill at when he tries. (Though really, in the end, the talent the Capitol cared about was his prostitution.) None of these talents really segue well into violent acts. 

The Victors who will have an edge going into the Quell are those whose wins were based off of intelligence or brute strength, not accident or skills that have worn off since the Games. Five, Vanya, and Luther have an edge, while Ben, Diego, and Klaus are definitely at a disadvantage (unless the Arena is entirely in the dark, in which case Klaus might be able to pull off a miracle).

Allison's a wild card. Allison might be able to pull something off with her skill with a blade, but her true skill in her Games was manipulation and betrayal, and Ben's pretty sure only him, Klaus, and maybe Vanya would trust her after her legendary betrayals in her original Games.

Over the next few days, Ben whispers with Five and collects his allies. Other than Klaus and Five, he's not going to trust his back to them, but he will trust his front. Diego, Allison, Vanya, and Luther join their alliance, swearing small deals among them, and Ben's pretty sure he won't survive but this team will take him further than any other would.

When he enters the Gamemakers' room to be evaluated, Ben knows all the talents he should be showing off, the talents that would get him points, but that he doesn't have.

So what does he do? He enters that room and pulls the same trick he did seventeen years ago. He identifies every single kind of poisonous berry on the plants table, then, for a bit of flair, grabs a piece of fabric, picks all the poisonous berries out of the pile, puts them in a bowl, and then stabs a knife into the berries. He then places it on a stool right in front of the Gamemaker's balcony.

"For my favorite people in the Capitol," Ben says, smiling Five's predator smile, and for once in his life he feels strong.

(Ben ends up scoring a nine, three points higher than his first score, all those years ago. Go figure.)

-

That night, Ben finds himself back in the same apartment he stayed in seventeen years ago, right next to Klaus' room.

Ben long ago gave up staying in his own house during the night, and being in the Capitol, about to go into the Arena, is no exception. Ben slips on his pjs and heads to Klaus' room, where he ends up laying down in bed with Klaus.

To this day, they both have nightmares about their Games. They're used to the blood-stained dreams by now, but that doesn't make them any easier to bear. When they're laying in bed together, though, that gives some form of contact comfort.

"We're not going to make it out," Klaus whispers, and Ben thinks about Five's plan to utilize the Quell to kickstart a Rebellion with District 13.

"I don't know," Ben says, but what he does know is this: if Five's plans fail, if the Quell goes on as planned and only one person makes it out, he wants it to be Klaus more than himself. He's watched Klaus' breakdown after Dave, watched his determination to survive in his Games, and he wants Klaus to get a second chance.

Ben doesn't care if he dies. He's lived long enough, after all. He's been a survivor for years, but he's pretty sure he's okay if Klaus survives this one and not him.

Klaus sighs and curls up a little in bed. "I just wish I could have spent more time with Dave first."

And oh, Ben wishes that too. He wishes Klaus could have had more time with Dave, that his boyfriend hadn't died, that he hadn't turned back to prostitution and drugs- though Ben very much understands why Klaus took that route. After everything they've seen, the temptation to drown your emotions in  _something_ is insane.

-

And then the next day the Quell begins, the pipes rise, and Ben knows that a lot of them are about to die.

He can only hope that Five and District 13's plans work out.

(They just have to.)

The countdown begins, and Ben takes one last chance to look around. The Cornucopia is down in a bowl-shaped canyon between them, and thus his view of no one is blocked. Klaus is directly across the circle from him, Five to the pedestal immediately to his left, Allison at the 3 o' clock position from Ben, Diego at the 11, Luther at the 9, and Vanya on Klaus' right.

The Arena is lit by dim light only, like the time between sunset and twilight, when the world seems gray but still visible. There is water beyond the tributes' pedestals, dark and questionable as to what lies under its surface. Small line of rock form bridges across the wide, wide water, to a shore Ben can just barely see.

The announcer's voice booms  _zero_ , and Ben runs. He knows his allies, knows he'll find his six people somewhere, but for now- he runs away from the Cornucopia.

He has to live, at least for now. He has to live for as long as possible, so that he can protect his allies for as long as possible.

Someone has to make it out. There's just no other option.

**Author's Note:**

> So, who enjoyed this new edition to the story? I have plans for the aftermath of this story, during the Rebellion and after the Quell, and if you'd like to read that, leave kudos or comments, if you don't mind! They push forward this series, as the ones that were left on the first story in this series did. Feel free to leave as rambling of a comment as you'd like- the long ones absolutely make my day and often lead to further inspiration for my writing.
> 
> Hope you have a great day!


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